# Mold?? Or Am I An Idiot??



## HailTheBrownLeaf (Jun 25, 2016)

Hi all,


So earlier, I went outside to smoke a R&J #2 Tubo earlier....but a few things about said cigar made me worry a bit.


A. Upon removing the stick from the tube, I noticed a bunch of white dust in various areas around the cigar, I wiped it off and no stains remained however there was a green spot on one part of the wrapper. There was no mold or any of these spots on the foot though. Now I've heard of the whole "mold and plume" thing, but have no idea which is which.


B. The wrapper looked like it was starting to split as it had several jagged lines . Now my tupperdor is at 65% RH but due to a heatwave we are having, it is also sitting at 85F. Now I know this is super high but I am in an apartment with no A/C. Could the high temps have been screwing with my wrapper??


C. I decided to punch the cigar (which felt unusually soft when squeezing it in my fingers to begin with) and when I did, my punch slid into the cap unusually easy. Almost like a hot knife through soft butter.


D. Upon toasting and lighting the cigar, I took a few puffs and had a thought that something tasted "off" but I couldn't determine what. So I pitched it to be safe.


Did I do the right thing???


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## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

HailTheBrownLeaf said:


> Hi all,
> 
> So earlier, I went outside to smoke a R&J #2 Tubo earlier....but a few things about said cigar made me worry a bit.
> 
> ...


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## HailTheBrownLeaf (Jun 25, 2016)

TonyBrooklyn said:


>


Refer to the pavement of the parking lot of my apartment complex then if you wanna take pics. Lol.

I was gonna take some but my iPhone 5 camera is garbage.


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## Bird-Dog (Oct 16, 2009)

Likely white mold combined with unrelated water spots. Being a tubed cigar, my guess is it was over humidified. Unless you opened the tube and then rested it that way for a good long while at a lower RH, then it may well have been locked-in with high RH in the tube. Fits the scenario, both as regards mold and flavor. I doubt the flavor issue was from the mold. Rather. flavor muted from the very same high humidity that encouraged the mold to grow. Tubos are arguably more susceptible to mold than boxed cigars, particularly if sealed for their entire existence right up 'til smoking time.


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## StogieNinja (Jul 29, 2009)

If the green is hairy, that's definitely a problem! But if it looks like the image below (stolen from the internet!), it's a water spot and is normal and harmless.


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## MaxG (Jan 2, 2016)

Sounds exactly like white mold, as Monkey Man diagnosed.

This is exactly why I never store tubos in the tubes. I know there are a lot of people who do, but I can't see the wisdom in that. I keep my empty tubes in a separate tupperdor so the cedar sheets stay humidified, then put the cigars back in the tubes when I'm transporting them. Tubos are great for transporting; lousy (IMO) for storage.


- MG


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## SeanTheEvans (Dec 13, 2013)

HailTheBrownLeaf said:


> Refer to the pavement of the parking lot of my apartment complex then if you wanna take pics. Lol.
> 
> I was gonna take some but my iPhone 5 camera is garbage.


Forreals? Or is this just an excuse to be lazy when asking others for their time and help?

You smoke RyJ by an iPhone 5 camera is garbage....?

I'm not even on the Apple side of things, but what planet are we living on? That's probably better than 90% of cameras being used just 5 years ago, and arguably still in the top 70% of them today. Compared to a DSLR or something fancy - perhaps garbage - but the statement in general makes me wonder what kind of world we're living in. Or perhaps what kind of world we think we're living in...

As others have said - white stuff was mold - you didn't need to toss the cigar, you needed to let it acclimate to desired RH. The green wasn't the problem at all. Take cigars out of tubos in the future so that they acclimate. Wrappers splitting is often due to rapid changes in RH or Temp (which would cause expanding/shrinking of wrapper/filler at different ratios, causing splits etc)


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## HailTheBrownLeaf (Jun 25, 2016)

Thank you for the help friends.

If I buy any more tubos (Cuban or non-Cuban) I'll remove them from the tubes from now on.

I do feel dumb for wasting a probably good R&J but it's better to be safe than sorry I guess.


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## StogieNinja (Jul 29, 2009)

If you to get tubos with white mold, just wipe them off with a paper towel. No need to toss them.


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## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

HailTheBrownLeaf said:


> Thank you for the help friends.
> 
> If I buy any more tubos (Cuban or non-Cuban) I'll remove them from the tubes from now on.
> 
> I do feel dumb for wasting a probably good R&J but it's better to be safe than sorry I guess.


The Mold is Cuban Penicillin been smoking it for years. :vs_laugh:


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## Hermit (Aug 5, 2008)

If it's not too bad, I'll wipe off mold and smoke em,
but if it tasted "off," then you prolly did the right thing.
If it tastes bad, why smoke it?


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## Regiampiero (Jan 18, 2013)

StogieNinja said:


> If the green is hairy, that's definitely a problem! But if it looks like the image below (stolen from the internet!), it's a water spot and is normal and harmless.


Mostly right, but to me the photo is showing uneven curing. Water spots usually burn the wrapper and look perfectly round. Probably a leaf that wasn't turned enough in the curing barn.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk


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